Dream
by Xyrule
Summary: A different take on Pupa. Yume and Usutsu may be monsters...but even monsters can learn to love. Starts pre-series and follows along the plot. Rated M because this is freaking Pupa. I don't think I need to place a shipping here, everyone knows it already. ABANDONED
1. June Bug

**It seems that the Pupa fandom, at least in the fanfiction community, is nearly nonexistent. Because of that, I've decided to take it upon myself to write a story revolving around the series' relationships and plotlines, many of which were very rushed and jumpy in both the manga and the anime.**

 **Because there is next to nothing by way of material for reference, I apologize if my theories and ideas are not as close to canon as they should be. There simply is too little in the series to display EVERYTHING perfectly, and of course I will be adding my own spin on it, since I'm just a fanfiction author and not the producer.**

 **I did not create Pupa. My mind isn't THAT screwed up...yet. All rights go to Mogi Sayaka...though it's not like she would know or care about some guy across the world writing a messed-up fanfiction of an even more messed-up series.**

* * *

"Onii-chan, wait up!" shouted the high-pitched voice of the young brunette girl, the tail of her new school uniform flapping behind her as she ran to catch up with her brother.

The aforementioned boy stopped walking, turning to face her, the smile playing on his face making him seem several years younger. The brightness of his smile was enough that one could ignore the scars on his body, marks from cigarette butts along his arms and face, burns, cuts, and all manner of scrapes, though no amount of smiling could hide the large red scratch trailing along his left eye.

When the girl had caught up to him, his smile widened, his eyes crinkling closed at the sudden well of happiness that swelled inside him after hearing his sister's voice and seeing her face. Subconsciously, a hand went to her head, and she smiled back at him, her expression as bright and innocent as a child five years younger than she was.

"Don't worry, I would never leave you behind, Yume." the boy said. "I'm here to protect you, I won't let you get lost."

Yume puffed out her cheeks in mock annoyance at his overprotectiveness. It didn't really bother her. She loved him, and she knew that he held his word in high regard. He would not abandon her. "Geez, Onii-chan, you say that like something major happened...You're just walking too fast, and I don't know my way around the school yet!"

Utsutsu laughed, rubbing the top of her head affectionately before removing his hand, receiving mixed emotions from the girl about the now-missing appendage on the top of her head. "It won't be that bad. Aren't your friends coming here too?" He tapped his chin, looking up at the sky. It was cloudy, but there didn't seem to be much chance of rain, at least for now. "Let's see...Kabatsu-san, Obibe-san, and...the quiet one."

Yume giggled. "Kutani-chan. Honestly, it's not that hard to remember!" she said, laughing at the light tinge that appeared in her brother's cheeks

He tapped the ridge under the scarred eye, looking sideways at nothing to show his embarrassment. "Right. And now you've got me on the floor above you!"

It was her first day in middle school now, and in the school they went to, the middle and high school students all went to the same place. Floor 1 was for the middle students, the second was for high schoolers. Nobody knew or care what was on the third floor.

Yume smiled, nodding with a hum of affirmation. "I'll wait for you after class!" she said, knowing that he had probably already memorized her schedule.

The boy's obsession with her didn't faze her in the slightest. Rather, she was happy that her Onii-chan cared so much about her. She wondered if his friends knew about her.

Utsutsu nodded at her statement. "I'll come pick you up around 11, then we can find somewhere to eat." he replied, looking forward at the school, which they had finally gotten to after walking from the house. The town wasn't a major city, there wouldn't be a problem having a car...but Utsutsu was still too young to get one, not that they had the money. He spent every penny he had taking care of the two of them.

It wasn't like their parents would help them. He had long since given up any hope of aid in any form from their mother, and he would rather die than be funded by his father.

His father. Not theirs. He didn't really know the circumstances surrounding Yume's birth, but from the times Shiro vented his frustrations on the boy, he had figured out that Yume had a different father, though who it was he didn't know. Any time he asked Sachiko, their mother, she would always tell them that Yume was a monster.

Utsutsu hated that woman. For reasons she refused to explain clearly, she'd given up on her children, and he knew that it was because he had chosen Yume over her.

He cared more for a sister that was only half-related to him than he did for the woman who birthed them. He was not ashamed to admit it, and when Sachiko started hanging around with other guys and all but vanished from the house, his hatred of the woman had only been solidified.

But all that abusive backstory and such meant nothing right now. It was Yume's first day at this school. He would put up a smile as he always did. He would act like nothing was wrong.

Yume glanced at him as they walked to the entrance of the building. She knew what he was thinking, as clearly as if they were her thoughts as well. She didn't have to see the pain he tried to hide in his eyes or the involuntary clenching of a fist to know that he was thinking about Shiro again.

She knew that his smile, as genuine as it was, was only a mask. She matched the smile with as much intensity as she could muster, to show him without speaking that she was there for him, as he was always there for her.

His smile was just another way for him to protect her. It was to protect her from his hatred, protect her from Shiro, protect her from Sachiko, protect her from the constant whirlpool of emotion that constantly churned within him.

She was not him and didn't know the exact extent of the pain he was always feeling, but she knew him. She knew his mind like her own. They were close, far closer than siblings needed to be.

It wasn't any kind of romantic type of relationship, Yume had no interest in such things and she knew that he didn't either. It was more primal than that. She saw him as her messiah, the person she could tell everything to and expect to be protected by.

He saw her as his crutch, the one thing keeping him sane in a world where everything reminded him of the pain of their past.

She couldn't live without him. It was obvious to her every time she looked at him, every time he defended her.

He couldn't live without her. He was there only to protect her. Without her, his life held no meaning.

He didn't care about the stream of "siscon" and "lolicon" his friends used to pick on him. She was his precious Yume.

She didn't care about Shiro or Sachiko or the scars covering his body. He was her Onii-chan.


	2. Clickbait Video

Yume waved excitedly as they split off, since Utsutsu was heading to the second floor, and he waved her off with a small smile as she united with the three girls who had swarmed her last year as well, before he turned to head up the stairs to the high school floor.

He didn't like leaving her alone, but he knew he couldn't do anything about it, and he had to trust those three to take care of her. He trusted them and they trusted him, though he and they had never actually spoken. In fact, he couldn't recall ever seeing their faces except the rare times when Yume invited them to their house.

Their house. It was under Sachiko's name, but she had been gone for several months now, probably off on an "extended vacation" with some new guy. Shiro hadn't set foot in the house in years, and Utsutsu was glad for it.

It was the siblings' house now. No one else lived there and he enjoyed it. He loved knowing that he was the only one near Yume then, that he could protect her if something happened.

His obsession with her was such that he felt uncomfortable at school, when he couldn't be around her all the time, though they always made sure to meet during breaks.

In any case, thoughts of Yume were driven into the back of his mind, though they were ever-present, as he neared his classroom.

He shifted his pack, slinging it over his shoulder with one hand so he'd have his other hand free to open the door, and as he walked in, he was greeted by the sight of a black-haired boy, staring at him from his position perched on a desk, hands flat on the wood to either side of him. He was tall, reaching Utsutsu's eye level despite being currently sitting down, and his expression was somewhat goofy, his eyes mostly closed and raised up in a large arc and a confused smile seemingly his resting expression.

The boy grinned and waved. "Ohayo, Hasegawa-san." he said in a melodic voice befitting his shota-like face more than his larger body, and Utsutsu smiled awkwardly at him

"Ohayo, Shigaraki-san." he said, walking around to the desk next to the tall boy.

Shigaraki smiled, resting back on the balls of his wrists and looking at the ceiling. It was early in the day still, so most of the students hadn't made it to class, and so the creaking of the desk under his shifting weight was clear and loud, drawing the attention of some of the other students for a second, before they went back to whatever they were doing. "It's been a while…" he said, and Utsutsu shrugged as he set down his pack on the desk he'd claimed as his own.

"Only a month. Ready for the year?" he asked, and Shigaraki sighed in the same singsong tone he always spoke in, sitting forward with his hands hanging loosely between his legs, his feet planted on the seat of his chair.

"I don't understand why we start the school year in May and end in March…" he complained. "It's confusing to plan breaks like that…"

Utsutsu smiled, and was about to say something when the door to the room burst open, and in the open doorway stood a very short, very excited boy. His eyes, normally as black as his hair, were lit with excitement as he wielded a smartphone in one hand.

"Siscon-kun, you're here!" he shouted, pointing at Utsutsu, who laughed nervously at the introduction, which left a few of the people currently in the room, mostly girls, staring.

Yes, the power of the word 'siscon' was stronger than that of his scars.

"Ohayo, Yūhei-kun." the scarred boy said calmly. "I thought you got over calling me that after we crossed to high school…And should someone who can't even reach the top shelf at his house really be making such loud introductions?"

He grinned as Yūhei spluttered for a comeback, before the boy shook his head, holding up the phone he carried horizontally, the screen facing Utsutsu.

"None of that matters, look at this!" he said, and Utsutsu raised an eyebrow. "It's a YouTube video that got uploaded yesterday, and it's freaking cool!"

Utsutsu chuckled at his friend's enthusiasm. It was out of character for the normally blunt and straightforward boy, but he was never much interested in viral videos. He doubted whatever Yūhei had found was worth looking at.

Shigaraki, however, thought otherwise, the ever-confused giant leaning over to look at the video, his mouth contorted into a frown of concentration as he looked at the title.

"'Monster-slayer Otsukawa Sora vs. demon Yukimaru'. Uploaded by BatafuraiAkademī on May 4, 2013..." he read, humming in disbelief. "Sounds like clickbait, and the thumbnail looks like special effects."

"It's not special effects!" Yūhei insisted. "Just watch it, you'll see! Siscon-kun, you watch it too!"

Utsutsu sighed, shaking his head, though despite his disbelief in his friend's words, he still stood up and walked to him. It wouldn't hurt to just watch it, after all.

It wasn't a very long video, judging from a quick glance at the time bar at the bottom. Just shy of 11 minutes. If it didn't interest him, Utsutsu could just go back to his seat and there'd be no harm done.

Yūhei clicked the play button, and the video began.

* * *

Right away, it went off with little explanation as to what was going on, other than what seemed to be a standoff between a man and what seemed to be a large devil creature. The creature was giant, at least ten feet tall, and it certainly did match the title of "demon", with its large fangs, clawed hands, and an impressive array of dark horns adorning its draconian face.

Its skin was a dark red color, and it had no apparent scales, nor did it have any sort of hair over the large dome of its head. The only feature that could be easily distinguished was its bright green eyes, the color nearly swamping the black of its slitted pupils.

The man that faced it looked like Yūhei did next to Shigaraki by comparison, though he was probably quite tall, adorned in a black suit and wielding a scimitar, the light reflecting off the weapon leaving a glare on the camera, which shook with the apparent fear/excitement of the person wielding it, was behind him, so little could be seen of his face other than the long white hair that fell around his shoulders.

The audio was terrible, the filming person clearly not aware of how to adjust sound levels as they filmed the fight.

After nearly thirty seconds of just standing still, the two being filmed leapt into action, the monster jumping forth in a very realistic pounce toward the man, who simply set his legs apart, bending his knees and lifting the scimitar as it came toward him.

The monster let out a roar as it swiped at him with one hand, the camera shaking as it shook the ground with its landing, but the man simply jumped to the side, avoiding the strike completely.

In a flash, he was behind it, and slashed his sword at its back, creating a small shower of blood as the monster growled in pain, though it still stood up quickly despite the wound it had sustained.

It turned to face him, and he grinned, his face now visible to the camera, though the video quality was too low to see many details, and his long hair was doing a very good job of shielding his eyes.

"Yukimaru-san." he said, his voice giving him an apparent age of someone in his twenties, though the quality was too low to be sure. He lifted the scimitar, and the monster's eyes narrowed at the motion. "Don't underestimate your opponent, but never be too wary. If you're overly cautious, you will miss even more than you would had you been blinded by overconfidence."

Utsutsu's mind whirled as he watched the video. _Is he...instructing it? What is going on here?_

It certainly looked very real, with how everything shook from the cameraman's movements and the quality of the camera wasn't so low that it was obviously fake, but not so high-quality that it would look like a set. The ma's face being obscured was also realistic, the shadows playing very realistically throughout the video.

But demons didn't exist. He didn't know what it was that the man was fighting, but the title was wrong, in some way.

The monster roared again as it stood, the wound from before having stopped spraying its blood, and it got into a fighting position again, jumping forward as it had done before.

The same thing happened, and once again, the man, who from the title Utsutsu assumed was Otsukawa Sora, berated the monster for making a mistake.

The rest of the fight was much like that, and Utsutsu kept his eyes glued to the screen the whole time. He didn't know why it was so fascinating, but something about the monster felt...familiar to him, though he couldn't put his finger on why.

By the end of it, the monster had collapsed to the ground, though all of its visible injuries seemed to have healed already. The man stood above it, his sword wielded as he prepared for a finishing blow, but the video ended before he could make the move.

At the end of the video was a white screen with the words "Otsukawa-sensei vs. Yukimaru, courtesy of Butterfly Academy!", and the video ended, replaced with the thumbnail and a replay option.

"See, I told you it was cool!" Yūhei said excitedly, though Shigaraki didn't seem too convinced.

"It was pretty neat, but if it was a school...It was probably just a school project. I bet 'Butterfly Academy' is a filmography school."

Utsutsu didn't say anything. He didn't realize it, but he was still staring at the video, his eyes wide and trembling.

His hand subconsciously balled into a fist. _That thing...I know it...but from where?_


	3. Enigmatic Teacher

"Alright, class." called the teacher, walking in a couple minutes after class was supposed to start, and he was met with the loud chattering that had filled the gap that his absence had created.

He wasn't young, but he wasn't very old either. In his late 30s or early 40s, based on his face and voice. He wore a brown trenchcoat over black slacks, as if he was an American from World War era, and the way he walked only exemplified the historical likeness.

He sighed as he was ignored, coughing into his fist and walking up to the center of the room, where a couple students were drawing some sort of diagram on the board.

"The blackboard is not for student use." he said, taking an eraser and running it across the chalk lines, much to the group's disappointment. "You can draw a butterfly's lifestyle diagram on your biology teacher's board, but this is English class. Sit down."

With a halfhearted "Hai, Sensei", the students who'd been drawing the diagram went back to their seats, and with their return, the rest of the class sorted themselves out as well.

Utsutsu stared at the teacher from his seat in the back row, gauging him with piercing eyes. He had never been a troublemaker, but it would be good to know if this guy was a pushover or a Trunchbull.

The teacher coughed into his fist again, standing in front of the now-quiet class. He didn't really command much authority, but it was still clear that he was in charge now. It was difficult for Utsutsu to observe him, as he seemed to be somewhat masking his personality.

Beginning of the semester syndrome, probably. They had only just started the year, he was probably putting on the nice-guy mask that teachers always did.

He clapped his hands as he looked around the class, smiling as he did so. "Well, it's nice to see that everyone is here for your first class of high school!" he said happily. "My name is Tutsukii Sen, I'll be your English instructor for the duration of this year!"

One of the students near the front row raised her hand, and he nodded. "State your name, then ask your question, I haven't had a chance to check the attendance sheet yet."

The girl nodded, lowering her hand and standing up next to her seat, bowing forward before standing straight. She clearly was the class president type of person, though Hoshigaki Academy didn't use a class-based president system like most schools in Japan. Her uniform was in perfect condition, as opposed to Utsutsu's being wrinkled and him not bothering to tuck it in, and her light brown hair was tied behind her back in two strands coming from either side of her head, braided down the center to keep it from getting in the way.

"My name is Tanaka Hitomi." she said. "Tutsukii-sen-"

She was interrupted by the teacher shaking his head. "Just call me Sen, and drop the honorific." he said, and in response to her surprised expression, he laughed. "It may just be me trying to pander to the younger generation, but I prefer my students refer to me with my first name. It helps me seem less like some sort of high-and-mighty drill sergeant. Also, no need to do the whole bowing thing when asking a question. Continue."

Utsutsu nodded from his seat in the back. _He seems alright. A little unaware, but that's no different from Shigaraki-san..._

Tanaka blinked, before nodding. "Sen," she said, quickly switching to the unconventional alternate name, though she was visibly uncomfortable with not using the proper honorific. "I was looking over the syllabus earlier, and we were supposed to be having Imari Ai-sensei, weren't we?"

Tutsukii blinked, before laughing, waving a hand. "Ai-chan recently had a bad bout with a virus, and she's not expecting to recover any time soon, so it was decided that I would take her slot for the semester. It was a bit of a sudden change, so there wasn't enough time to notify the students."

 _She actually read the syllabus?_ Utsutsu thought, resting his head on his hand and looking over the girl, though he could only see her back from where he sat. _Definitely the council-type person._

Tanaka nodded, and was about to bow again, before stopping herself, since the teacher had said not to bother, before thanking him and sitting back down.

Tutsukii smiled, coughing into his fist again, a motion that was quickly becoming apparent as a signature of his. "Now, then. Any other questions? It's best to get things out of the way now, before we actually get started with class."

Yūhei's hand quickly shot up, and Tutsukii nodded to him. The shota immediately stood, slamming his hands on his desk, a determined look on his face.

Utsutsu already knew what he was going to ask, and he groaned and rolled his eyes. Yūhei was definitely acting strange over that whole video thing.

"Do you know anything about Otsukawa Sora?!" he exclaimed, and Tutsukii blinked, before laughing.

"The so-called 'Monster slayer'?" he asked. "I met the guy, he's an instructor at Butterfly Academy. Bit of an odd one, he is. It was from him that I developed my habit of having students call me by my first name."

Yūhei blinked. "Does that mean the Yukimaru video was real?!" he asked, and Tutsukii laughed again.

"Who knows? There's all kinds of odd creatures living in this world, there's no telling if that video was real or staged. I don't know of any Yukimaru, but I'd bet that they are an academy student." He clapped his hands together, silencing any sort of further questions from the boy. "Now, then. That's a conversation for another day, and another class. Try asking your biology teacher, they should have more information - provided they've seen the video before."


	4. Siscon's Sister

Tutsukii spent the rest of the class having everyone introduce themselves, and every time Yūhei mentioned the video, he ignored the boy, as did most of the rest of the class.

Utsutsu rolled his eyes at his friend. "You're just bugging people now, Yūhei-san. Just go back to your normal blunt self, it's easier to handle you then."

The shota groaned at him. "So I can't get excited by anything, Siscon-kun?" he asked, and a couple people glanced back at them.

Utsutsu rolled his eyes, resting his head on his hand and looking toward the window...though hee was closer to the door than the window, and so just ended up creeping out the girl sitting to his other side.

"W-What are those scars from?" she asked, and he groaned, shaking his head and looking forward at the blackboard, having nowhere else to look.

"Abusive father. Ignore them, I don't want your sympathy." he replied, and he glanced to the side as he noticed Tanaka staring at him.

She quickly looked away when she realized he was looking at her, and his eyebrow raised. Why exactly had she singled him out?

It took very little thinking to realize she was probably just put off by the 'Siscon' thing. SHe wasn't the first to stare at him for the name, and she certainly wouldn't be the last.

As for Tutsukii, he was simply sitting at his desk, talking with a small group of people. The way he sat made him seem almost like a student himself, and he probably would have mistaken him for one if he wasn't clearly an adult, with his taller frame and aged face, though his hair was a dark black, and from his position Utsutsu couldn't see any grey strands.

He sighed and looked down at his desk. If Yūhei was going to do the whole Siscon thing again this year, he'd have to build up his reputation. He didn't particularly care how people saw him, but having a good reputation would prevent anything bad happening, and he really didn't want the student council on him.

The next class, History, was almost the same, mostly an introductory day where the history teacher, Koro Ansatsu-sensei, spent the entire time ranting about how the textbook's version of World War II was completely wrong. Apparently he was a war history nut and had spent his doctorate researching it.

Utsutsu tuned him out the entire time, occasionally glancing at Tanaka, who had been forced to sit next to him as it was the only available seat, after she was late for class because she'd evidently left her lunch with her bike outside. He didn't really care, but he noted it anyway because why the heck not.

He talked with her a little since even she didn't care about the rant, and honestly, she wasn't all that bad. They weren't exactly friends, but they certainly weren't on bad terms..though she still occasionally cast a look at him that somewhat creeped him out with her intensity.

Koro-sensei's rant lasted the entire class period, during which Utsutsu seriously doubted any students had actually paid any attention. As the bell rang, the teacher continued talking even as students were getting up and taking out bentos for lunchtime.

As Shigaraki left the room with a nod to Yūhei, who was still seated next to Utsutsu, his box already open, wielding chopsticks in one hand, the tall boy was nearly knocked over by the force of a girl running into him from the open doorway.

"Onii-chan!" Yume called, waving at Utsutsu from the doorway, and he rolled his eyes and smiled, standing up to walk to her, ignoring the stares he got from several students, including Tanaka, who he noticed quickly glance at Yume before resting on him.

"I told you I'd come to pick you up, Yume." he said. "What are you doing here?"

She grinned, holding up a bento box in one hand, an identical one clasped in her other hand. "You forgot to get your lunch this morning and I didn't notice until I took it out. I got help from Obibe-chan finding my way here."

He blinked, before smiling, and after taking the box from her, patted her head with his free hand.

He heard whispering from behind him, and glanced back at the class, sighing as he realized what he was doing.

 _Right, I should be NOT doing things that make me seem like a siscon…_ he thought, removing his hand from her head. "Well, let's eat. We going to the roof?"

She shook her head, walking over and sitting herself down at Shigaraki-s desk, in front of his. "I'll eat here, I want to meet your friends!" she said.

Utsutsu smiled, before groaning as Yūhei immediately pointed her out as his sister. As he walked back to his seat, Tanaka continued staring at him, her gaze seemingly more intense than before.

He sweatdropped as he sat back down and opened his bento, breaking apart the chopsticks to use them. "I'm not a siscon, just so you know." he told the girl, who shook her head, smiling at him.

"It's fine, I doubt you are. It doesn't affect me either way anyway, I wouldn't think less of you for that."

Yume tilted her head. "Then why are you starin at Onii-chan so intently?" she asked as Tanaka opened her own lunch.

The council-type girl closed her eyes and folded her hands together, her chopsticks held horizontally in the space between her fingers. "Itadakimasu." she said, before setting them in the proper position in her hands.

She looked at Yume, shrugging as she poked at her food a couple times with the tips of her chopsticks. Her lunch was somewhat strange, at least to Utsutsu's housekeeper-minded side, due to him being the caretaker for both of them.

It was all meat, and it was cooked rare at best, practically red. Not healthy in the slightest.

As she picked up a piece of the meat, the bite dripping a bit as she put it to her mouth, she shrugged again, chewing a couple times before nodding her head. "I stare at him because I love him." she said simple, and Yume, Utsutsu, and Yūhei all had around the same shocked reaction. She just shrugged again. "I've been in his class a couple years now, and while he never noticed I was there, I noticed him. So yeah. I love him." She pointed her chopsticks, the tips stained red from the meat, at Yume like a weapon, though her expression was completely neutral. "Don't get in the way of our love, Brocon-chan."

Yume blinked, and Yūhei whistled, while Utsutsu remained still, stunned by her declaration.

Yūhei made an awed gasp, setting his hands together and staring at her. "...That's a pretty bold move, admitting that right in front of him like that."

Tanaka shook her head, looking at Utsutsu, who blinked a few times. "What's so brave about it? Why not just say it outright since I have the chance?" She smiled at him. "Don't bother giving me an answer, I just wanted to say it since your sister asked. I'd rather love you from afar rather than risk finding out you're a boring person."


	5. Tanaka's Brother

**Happy belated Valentine's Day, all 25 or so people who have read this!**

 **Sorry the chapter was so short, I wasn't really feeling like writing and just decided to turn in what I had. This one is a rewrite of it, extended a bit to make up for the short chapter. Thank you for reading!**

* * *

Utsutsu didn't know how to react as Tanaka went back to eating, and he had to blink several times to even realize that time was still flowing forward as normal. "Umm…" he said, unsure how to respond.

Well, she DID say that she didn't want an answer, so that took a load off his chest.

"That lunch doesn't look healthy." he pointed out, and she turned her head to face him, her chopsticks stuck into her mouth with another bite. "It's almost raw, and there's no balance of nutrition."

She stared at him as she chewed and swallowed the bite, grinning at him. "Someone confesses to you and your reaction is to complain about their eating habits?" she asked, laughing. "Well, I expected that from you, it's just the kind of person you are."

Yume leaned over to look at the other girl's bento box, nodding her head. "Onii-chan always makes everything really well, you should let him make some for you some time!" she said.

Tanaka laughed and shook her head. "No, that's fine. This is enough for me. I've been on a meat-only diet for a while now at my dietitian's advice, I'll probably be back on a normal diet within a week."

"What kind of diet would risk you getting some sort of disease?" Utsutsu asked, crossing his arms. "What even is that? Beef?" he added, and she shrugged.

"Other animals can eat raw food. Why can't we? Maybe it's just a natural immunity, but I'm not able to get any sort of food-borne illness, other than a stomachache or such. As for what kind of meat this is…" She grinned, wielding a chunk of the odd meat in her chopsticks. "What would you do if I told you I'm eating part of my old sensei?"

The boy blinked a few times, before shrugging, resting his head on the palm of his hand and looking away from her. "If you're not going to tell me, at least make up a better joke…"

"Siscon-kun, you shouldn't bug people." Yūhei said, aping the scarred boy's words from earlier. "You don't need to criticize people's food, that's just weird."

Utsutsu glanced at him, before his face split into a grin. "There's the blunt Yūhei-san I know." he said, before he sweatdropped. "I'm not a siscon!"

Yūhei grinned, and Yume smiled, while Tanaka simply went back to eating.

"I can tell that you're all very close to each other. I hope I can have a similar relationship with you all." the council-type girl said. "My middle school classmates weren't nearly as tight as you seem to be...though maybe it was my fault for keeping a distance for most of it."

"Yeah, the last 3 years were a nightmare for my social life." Yūhei said. "I had to stick around Shigaraki-kun and this guy over here, or else I'd have been left out of everything!"

Yume raised her hand. "My best friends came here with me, so I know some people...and I did make other friends today too!" she said.

Utsutsu smiled. "Good for you. Adapting to the campus?" he asked.

She shook her head. "I'll need you to guide me around sometimes, but I made it here without getting lost at least, so I can always find you if I don't know where to go!"

Tanaka smiled. "I'll help you any time if you need it too, if you don't mind me, Yume-chan. Oh, is it alright to call you that?"

Yume looked at Utsutsu, who shrugged. "We're siblings, we have the same last name. Just use our first names." he said.

Tanaka nodded. "Then just call me Hitomi, to make it fair!" she said, and Utsutsu snorted, while Yume smiled happily.

"Okay, Hitomi-senpai!" she said. "Nice to meet you!"

Hitomi smiled, holding out a hand, which Yume eagerly took, and as they shook hands, her smile broadened.

"Nice to meet you, Yume-chan. I hope we can become good friends."

The ever-innocent girl grinned. "I won't let you take my Onii-chan away, he's staying with me forever!" she replied, and Tanaka laughed.

"I wouldn't dream of it. I envy you too, I was never all that close with my brother." she replied.

"You should make up with him!" Yume said, and Tanaka smiled, a bit ssadly.

"I can't. He died 6 years ago. He was a member of the Rikujō Jieitai before he was killed in combat."

Utsutsu glanced at her. "Sorry to hear that." he said, and she shook her head, waving a hand to blow away his remark.

"It's fine, I was young then. I barely remember him anymore, and like I said, we weren't close. He rarely even came home, it wasn't much of a shock when we got the news."

"Well, that's good to hear!" Yume said, after a long silence. "I don't know what I'd do without Onii-chan." She looked at Utsutsu, her eyes wide in an effort at a puppy-dog expression...a face she pulled off well. "Don't leave me and join the army, okay?"

Utsutsu looked at her, and smiled, reaching a hand to pat her head. "Don't worry. I won't. I'm with you until the end."


	6. Cocoon

It had been several weeks since the semester had started, and life at school had settled down as the students formed their circles and classtime was filled with lectures. Utsutsu still had not yet bothered to meet any of the other students outside the few he talked to regularly.

Not that they were willing to speak with him. The nickname Yūhei had given him and his scary appearance were plenty to drive away most people, and he tended to be a bit harsh to those who did bother speaking with him.

He didn't really care. He had enough friends, with Yūhei and Shigaraki on one hand and Tanaka on the other, and of course, Yume filled in the gap between.

She'd taken to appearing at his classroom every time a break happened, and it had gotten to the point that the other students no longer mentioned it when she came. It was just generally accepted that she would be there.

Utsutsu hadn't left his lunch with her since the first day of school, so she had to come up with other excuses before people stopped asking, but none of that mattered now that it was more normal for her to be here than for her to stay away.

Class was surprisingly interesting to Utsutsu. Tutsukii, who still had to correct people when they didn't call him by his first name, was a very energetic person, and he often made references to various pop culture and other things to keep the class from getting bored with their English lessons.

At one point, he'd even handed out one of his books, written entirely in English, a science fiction book about a virus taking over humans and turning them into zombie-like creatures. It was the most entertaining novel Utsutsu had ever read...though he wasn't sure why it had been called _Cocoon_ , and when asked about it, Tutsukii just gave one of his normal vague answers that told him nothing.

English was his favorite class, and unlike in middle school, he had a real interest in learning the language, not that he could see any reason to, since few people in the city actually spoke it and he had no desire to leave once he graduated.

His other classes were pretty interesting too. Despite Koro-sensei frequently going off in tangents and rants with little to no relevance to the subject at hand, he was still very knowledgeable when he was focused on the topic at hand.

Their biology teacher, Hotoki Uushun, was a bit of an eccentric man, always dressed in a lab coat and a pair of tinted round glasses, though he evidently didn't actually need to wear them. He was apparently a medical researcher in the field of viruses, and frequently talked about his research during lectures...even though not a single student had any clue what he was talking about most of the time. It really didn't help that he talked very quickly, and his dialect gave him an accent that was difficult to understand even when he did speak clearly.

He still hadn't learned the names of the teachers for his other classes, but they were good people, just not as memorable as the first three.

~~~Lunchtime~~~

Tanaka sighed as she sat down on the concrete between Utsutsu and Shigaraki, looking behind her through the fencing over the ground below. Their group had decided to eat on the roof today, though Yūhei had been forced to stay behind in the classroom because he'd made Koro-sensei mad because of something he did.

"Oh, egg!" she said excitedly as she opened her bento box. "I love eggs, they're great."

Her lunch had gotten more normal after about a week of her eating nothing but the weird almost-raw meat she'd had on the first day, and while she still had a much smaller amount of it in one of the sections of the box, she also ate normal food along with it.

"You really should get rid of that raw stuff." Shigaraki said in his usual singsong voice, leaning over to look at her food through half-lidded eyes. "My dad got food poisoning recently from accidentally eating some partially-cooked chicken, I wouldn't want you to get sick too…"

Tanaka smiled, lightly tapping him on the nose with the thicker end of her chopsticks. "Are you worried about me, Shigaraki-kun?" she asked. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. I need to eat it, it's got chemicals in it that help fight a genetic disorder I have. If I cooked it, it would lose its potency."

"Oh…" the tall boy said, sighing as he opened his own lunch, looking down at it with a frown. "My mom ate all the tomatoes before she could pack them again…" he complained.

Utsutsu smiled at the boy. Shigaraki's clueless nature had a powerful calming effect, and he always found himself listening to him whenever he had something on his mind.


	7. Yume's Curse

As Utsutsu got into yet another argument over Tanaka's eating habits, Yume sat to his other side, watching him with a mixture of happiness and sadness.

She was happy because he seemed to have finally fully gotten over their abusive childhood. Last year he had refused to make friends and she knew he'd preferred being alone, and he'd never invited the two boys that were his friends to their house. Now, he was chatting with someone he'd never met before, and she knew that he considered Tanaka his friend now.

Things would become more normal for them both now, at the rate they were going...but that thought also brought her sadness.

Her dear Onii-chan was finally learning what it was to be a typical teenager now, but she knew she was different. She wasn't normal, and while she wasn't sure to what extent her differences lay, she knew she could never have the relationships her brother could.

Sure, she had friends, but she felt little compassion for them. That emotion was foreign to her. Many emotions were hard for her to understand.

She knew what she was. Some kind of beast, a creature in human skin that saw the world in monochrome. She wasn't like him, she wasn't like his friends, she wasn't like her own classmates.

She felt few emotions, but she was jealous of her brother...and disappointed in him. There he was. He was human. He was whole. He could do whatever he wanted, make as many friends as he cared to make, and yet he stayed tethered to her.

She loved him, an emotion far stronger than she felt for any other person she'd ever met. She cared about him so deeply that she sometimes couldn't even look at him, for fear of seeing the pain he always had in his eyes.

She was disappointed that he hadn't noticed. She was so different, always putting up such an obviously faked facade of his innocent little sister...yet he never noticed. He never saw her for what she really was, he never treated her like the animal she knew she was inside.

He trusted her too much. The scar over his eye was proof enough of that. She knew that he knew that it was her who gave it to him, years ago, when her memory was hazy and her actions were uncontrolled.

He'd said that scar was thanks to their father, but they both knew that he was lying to himself. He knew it was her who did it, yet he still protected her. Even in his own mind, she knew that he had constructed false memories to protect the image he held of her.

She hated it. He was the most precious thing to her, and she couldn't stand seeing him tear himself apart to protect her. She hated it. She hated being loved.

But she was also afraid. She could simply tell him all of this, tell him that the sister he knew was a lie, but she was terrified of what he would do. She hated being loved, but she feared being hated. She couldn't bear the thought that he would abandon her if he saw her as the monster she really was.

Even now, while these thoughts swept across her mind like a tornado, she kept up her smile. When he looked at her, the smile would broaden, and she'd respond to his comments and questions in the way his innocent little sister would reply.

There's a saying in Japan, that every person has three faces. One that strangers see, one that friends and family see, and one that you show to no one.

She would wear her second face for as long as she could. She hated being loved, but feared being hated.

She couldn't bear to show him her last face. She knew she was being stupid, she knew that the clenching in her heart when she thought of what he might do if he saw her true self was a meaningless feeling.

She knew that he trusted her too much for his own good. She knew that, even if she became some sort of demon, he would still just embrace her and whisper in her ear that she'd be okay and that her dear Onii-chan was there to protect her.

That thought made her feel even worse. He was her pillar, keeping her held up out of the darkness of her mind, and she was his life. They were together to the end, whether she wanted it or not.

She loved him and truly wanted to stay with him forever, but she knew that she would be dragging him down to where she was.

The worst part was, she didn't know how deep the waters of her mind were. She was still at the surface, and he was her life raft. She didn't have a clue where the bottom was.


	8. Dinnertime

Life was as boring as usual at home, but as long as Yume was around, Utsutsu was happy with it.

"What do you want for dinner tonight? I'm thinking donburi, we need to get rid of a lot of these leftovers…"

"Sounds good!" Yume called happily from her place sitting at the couch in the living room, staring at the TV, which was turned on to some channel.

Utsutsu nodded, checking inside their refrigerator for whatever he could use, because donburi was basically a bowl of leftovers, it wouldn't take long to make.

Normally he'd make a full meal, but today, he was more tired than usual. A combination of Tutsukii's particularly energetic lecture that day, Hotoki-sensei ranting about his personal research, and the usual argument with Tanaka over her eating habits had exhausted him, and then Yūhei had forced him to watch another one of those clickbait videos by BatafuraiAkademī.

"Daisuke Yukimaru vs. Kirishima Tabane" was the name of that video, and it featured the same 'demon' as the first one, though the camera quality was much better and didn't shake. Clearly, Butterfly Academy was a film production school, he had no idea why Yūhei still insisted that it was legitimate footage. Did he seriously think that there was actually such thing as demons?

It really was getting annoying having the shota as obsessed as ever over that academy. He could just transfer there himself if he liked its productions so much.

The scarred boy hummed to himself as he took out covered plates of food, laying them over the counter next to the refrigerator and looking over what they had.

"Hmm…" He thought to himself over what he could make with what they had, shifting into cooking mode as he looked over the food.

He went to a cabinet to take a pot out, filling it with water before setting it on the electric stove and letting it start to boil while he decided what to make.

"I think we'll go with an Indian style dinner today." he said to himself, picking out a few of the plates and putting the rest back.

He took an apron he often wore and put it on, tying it behind his back as he watched the pot full of water starting to boil. He smiled and crossed his arms, heading into the living room, having no reason to wait there. The food would be fine left out of the fridge for a few minutes, it was all wrapped neatly after all.

He sat down on the arm of the couch, looking at the TV while Yume laid across the cushions as she watched.

"PBS? Didn't even know we had that channel." he said, and she shrugged, looking up at him with a smile on her face.

"There wasn't anything else on, and it's interesting." she said. Currently, the program was explaining the life cycle of a butterfly, something that didn't particularly interest Utsutsu, so he stood up and headed back to the kitchen.

After half an hour, the food was ready, and he called his sister in. Like a soldier performing a duty, she came in obediently at his call, sitting down at the small table in the dining room and waiting for him.

He smiled, taking off his apron and lifting the pot from the stove with gloved hands to protect him from the heat, turning off the stove with a tap of his elbow on the knob, before walking into the room and placing it down on the already-set table, taking his oven mitts off and sitting down next to her.

She smiled at him, her mouth opening in an "ooh" sound as she looked at the pot. "Looks good!" she said as he took a clump of the meat and vegetable combo and set it on her plate.

She separated the chopsticks next to the table with a snap, and with a loud "Itadakimasu!", dug into her food.

Utsutsu smiled, acting much more slowly as he watched her. This was always how Yume was, ever since she was a toddler, she always ate so quickly, and always left a mes behind. She certainly wasn't a tidy eater, but he didn't mind. Cleaning up after the girl was no problem to him, he enjoyed housework, and besides, nothing she did could possibly make him angry, though she'd apologized many times for her eating habits.

It was as if she was a monster, especially when she was eating meat, the way she tore into hr food, and it was slightly unnerving watching her eat, but he did it anyway, because he had nothing else in his life that mattered more to him than she did.


End file.
